


I Put A Spell On You

by Stef



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-27
Updated: 2012-08-27
Packaged: 2017-11-12 23:56:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/497094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stef/pseuds/Stef
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Audrey Parker finds herself in the middle of a love-triangle. Now if she can only find her way out of it...<br/>Season 1 AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Put A Spell On You

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Haven fic, so of course I decide to do it as a Little Bang. Go big or go home! It is AU for late season 1, somewhere between ep 9 and 12. No spoilers for Season 2. 
> 
> The title is after the Creedence Clearwater Revival song of the same name. 
> 
> A huge thank you to my wonderful beta, tempusborealis. Any and all mistakes left behind are all mine.

“So let me get this straight,” Audrey said, deftly stepping around two children racing through the crowd. “You regularly get together to celebrate lobsters.”

She looked over in time to see one corner of her partner’s mouth quirk in amusement. At least, she hoped it was amusement. It might have been annoyance, or just a facial tick; it was sometimes hard to tell with Nathan.

“‘Celebrate’ is a strong word. And it’s only one day a year.”

“And the other 364 days a year you what? Shun it?”

Nathan gave her a look that Audrey translated as exasperation. “We make a living off of it. Besides, it brings in the tourists.”

“Well, yeah. Who doesn’t want to see a parade dedicated to crustaceans?” She pointed to a teenage girl in a sparkly dress and a tiara that seemed to include crystal-encrusted claws. “And see the crowning of the Haven Sea Goddess.”

“Go ahead, mock,” Nathan said. “But I seem to recall seeing you scarfing lobster puffs like they were going out of style.”

Audrey felt her cheeks get hot for a moment, but she said, “Can you blame me? Those things are like deep sea crack.”

Nathan smiled. “Martha's lobster puffs are always the hit of the festival.”

Audrey nodded. “They were so good I may have to propose marriage.”

“Well, that will be interesting.”

“I think I might need some sugar to balance out it out, though.”

“Coffee and blueberry tarts at Marlee’s?”

Audrey’s smile widened. “Detective Wuornos, you are a certified mind-reader.”

*-*-*

“This is delicious, Marlee,” Audrey said to the woman as she took another bite of blueberry tart. 

Marlee smiled. “Glad you like it, Detective. More coffee?”

“Please,” Audrey said, offering her mug up to Jake, Marlee’s teenage son, for a refill. 

“We should get back to the station soon,” Nathan said as he glanced at his watch.

A brief grimace passed over Audrey’s face as she looked at her partner. “Oh. Yeah, we should head back.”

Nathan smiled crookedly. “How come this is a case involving the Grey Gull, and you’re the one dodging the case?”

When she said, “I’m not dodging,” her partner raised his eyebrows, and Audrey slumped in her seat. “I’m sorry, but it’s a boring case. Vandalism - not even a B & E. Besides, it was probably just some teenagers, looking for a thrill."

“Are you honestly complaining because this is a normal case and doesn’t involve anything Trouble-related?”

“It’s just difficult to stay motivated when there isn’t a countdown.” Nathan gave her a disbelieving look. Audrey smiled and shrugged. “I’ve gotten used to having a deadline is all.”

“I never figured you for an adrenalin junky,” Nathan said, obviously amused by the idea.

“Oh, yeah, that’s me,” Audrey said. “Always looking for the next thrill.”

“If it’ll make you feel better I can hum the theme song to Jeopardy while we work,” Nathan offered. 

“Try it and you’ll be lucky you can’t feel pain,” Audrey said mildly. She took another bite of the tart and moaned. “Marlee, you may have replaced Mr. Rogers as my favorite person ever.”

Marlee gave her a bemused expression. “Uh, thanks, I think.” 

The sound of bells signaled the entrance of a new customer. Audrey and Nathan both glanced toward to door to see Duke Crocker step inside. He immediately spotted them and hurried over, looking far more stressed out than Audrey could ever remember seeing him.  
“Hey, Duke,” Audrey said. Nathan gave him a short nod, which, considering their history, was fairly civil.

“Afternoon, Duke,” Marlee said with a welcoming smile. “Take a seat anywhere. Jake?”

Jake stuck his head out from the kitchen and started to make his way toward the new arrival.

“I’m not staying, Marlee,” Duke said. He spared Audrey a quick smile before he rounded on Nathan. “I know we don’t see eye-to-eye on, well, anything, but come on, this is my business we're talking about."

“It’s not me.” Nathan jerked a thumb at Audrey who paused with a forkful of blueberry tart halfway to her mouth. 

She smiled and held out the forkful to Duke. “Blueberry tart?”

"You're really foregoing the investigation for a snack?" He glanced at Marlee and held up a placating hand, "Delicious though it may be."

"We're still investigating, Duke, but we have to eat sometime," Audrey said. She did feel a little guilty, though.

"Oh, so what if I said that the walls started bleeding about an hour ago."

Audrey perked up. "They did?"

“No, but I knew it!” Duke said, stabbing an accusing finger at her. “You’re avoiding my case.”

"We're not avoiding it," Audrey said. "We're headed back to the station right after this. Aren't we, Nathan?"

Duke gave her a long, blank look before turning back to Nathan. “Can I talk to you outside?”

Nathan looked dubious but nodded and followed Duke out of the café.

Audrey kept one eye on them as they stood outside the cafe's picture window. They appeared to be having an argument if their stances were any indication - Duke waving his hands about wildly; Nathan standing still, his shoulders set in a tense line.

“Lucky girl,” Marlee said, smiling at Audrey from the end of the counter.

“Excuse me?”

Marlee inclined her head towards the window. “Two handsome men vying for your attention? Sounds like luck to me.”

Audrey choked on a mouthful of coffee, only just managing not to get it down her front. “There’s no vying, believe me. They were like that long before I came to town.”

Marlee looked a little crestfallen at that news, but she rallied and said, “Pretty girl like you, there must be someone in your life.”

Jake, sitting down at the other end of the counter, rolled his eyes and said, “Mom, stop it,” but Marlee waved him away with a hand.

Audrey shook her head and smiled. “Nope, just me. This town keeps me busy. Not much time for a social life, you know?” Duke and Nathan’s voices got a little louder, causing customers to peer through the windows at the scene they were making.

Audrey rolled her eyes as she quickly stood up and pulled out money for their meals. “I should go break that up before I have to arrest both of them for assault. Thanks, Marlee. Bye, Jake.”

*-*-*

Audrey stayed at the station until a little after five before calling it a night. As much as she hated to admit it, both Nathan and Duke had been right (and wouldn't they both hate to be lumped in the same category like that?); without the burning need to solve the case as soon as possible, she just didn't have the motivation she normally had. When had Haven turned her into an adrenalin junky?

It was sort of refreshing, though, to be back at her motel room at a decent hour, enjoying a nice night in without worrying about who might not make it another day because she couldn't figure out the mystery. 

Actually, she decided as she climbed into bed, it was really kind of nice. 

*-*-*

The next morning there was a knock on Audrey’s door early enough that the sun hadn’t yet found a way to get through her curtains. She groaned and rolled onto her stomach, burying her head under her pillow. 

The knock came again – harder and more persistent this time. Audrey pushed the pillow away and flopped onto her back with a sigh before climbing out of bed and padding to the front door.

She opened the door and peered out, belatedly realizing that she was wearing pajamas – skimpy pajamas – and Duke Crocker was on the other side of the door, looking as excited as if Christmas had come early.

“What do you want, Duke?”

“Good morning, Audrey,” he said brightly. His face looked as though if he smiled any wider his face would crack. “You are looking particularly lovely this morning.”

“Oh, ha ha,” she said, trying to smooth down the back of her hair which always seemed to develop a god-awful cowlick while she was sleeping. “What do you want, Duke? It’s too early to play ‘Pick On Audrey’.”

“I would never,” he said. He actually sounded sincere, but Duke and sincerity were about as likely a match as fire and water. He held out a bag with Marlee’s logo on it and a to-go cup similarly stamped. 

Audrey took the proffered bag and peered inside, half expecting something to go off in her face. Fortunately for her (and Duke, likewise) it was nothing more sinister than a chocolate chip scone. 

She snatched the coffee out of his hand, sipped experimentally, then, deciding that Duke could live and come inside, she took a seat on her couch and beckoned to an open seat with the coffee cup.

“I’m still not convinced your motives are honorable,” she said, “but I’ll bite: what are you doing here?”

“I can’t just bring a friend some breakfast?” Duke asked, emphasizing the word ‘friend’ slightly more than was necessary. 

“I don’t know,” she said, “but somehow I doubt that you normally do.” She took another sip of the coffee. Damn, Marlee knew how to make a good latte. She took the scone out of the bag and broke off a corner to munch on. “This is really string-free?”

“Absolutely.” He held up one hand in the Scout’s Honor sign. Audrey doubted he’d ever come into contact with a Boy Scout Troop, other than to steal their lunch money. 

“You have a great day,” he said, grinning at her as he made for the door.

Audrey made a mental note to ask him to never smile at her like that again.

*-*-*

After stopping at Rosemary’s to pick up a box of pastries (she had learned the hard way that not all baked goods were created equal and had made a standing agreement with Rosemary to have a box of assorted pastries waiting for her on the second Tuesday of every month), she arrived at the station a little after eight.

“You wouldn’t believe the line at Rosemary’s,” she said, setting Nathan’s customary bearclaw on the desk in front of him before landing in her own seat. “You’d think her stuff was laced with something the way people line up for it.”

She waited for Nathan to make the obligatory joke about her being one of those people, but none came. When she looked over at him, he was staring at her as though he’d never seen her before.

“Nathan? You okay?”

“What?” He blinked a few times and seemed to mentally shake himself. “Oh. Yeah, I’m fine. You look…nice today.”

“As opposed to all the other days when I look not nice?”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Nathan said, ducking his head. “I just meant you look pretty. Today. Not that you don’t look pretty other days, it’s just you look especially pretty today.”

Audrey stared at her partner for a long moment. “Are you feeling all right?”

Nathan shifted in his seat and absently shuffled a few papers. “Fine. Why?”

“Nothing. I’m just having one of those mornings where I wonder if everyone is crazy, or if I’m really the one who’s going crazy.”

“Why?” Nathan asked. He was now staring rather intently at a spot just over Audrey’s shoulder.

Audrey glanced behind her at the spot he was staring at, but other than an errant cobweb in the corner of the room, she couldn’t see what held his attention so raptly. “Well, Duke showed up at my door this morning.”

Nathan’s gaze focused on her with alarming speed. “What? This morning? Why?”

“That’s the strange thing – he didn’t want anything. He just brought me coffee and a scone. It was weird.”

Nathan nodded slowly, and then began playing with the case folders on his desk, stacking them, then stacking them again in a new order. “Did you, I don’t know, like that?”

Audrey made a face. “Well, the coffee part was fine – I mean, who doesn’t like free coffee? But the showing up at my door at 5:30 this morning was less fine.” She stared at her partner for a long moment. Was he blushing? It was hard to tell in the dim light of the office, but his face did look a bit redder.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

“Fine,” Nathan said shortly. He stood up quickly, almost knocking over his chair. He caught it before it hit the ground, righted it, and hurried out the door. A moment later he came back in, muttering something Audrey couldn’t quite understand, grabbed his jacket, and nearly ran out again.

“Yeah, that was completely normal,” Audrey murmured. She poked her head out of the office in time to see Nathan almost run down a patrolman in his hurry to be out of the building. “Curioser and curioser.”

*-*-*

A call came in an hour later that someone had vandalized Ken Waterman’s hardware store. Audrey caught a ride with Stan to the scene as her partner – and her normal mode of transportation – had conveniently disappeared.

Nathan apparently hadn’t gone too far because he showed up just as she was finishing her interview with the clerk at Waterman’s.

He approached slowly, hands stuck deep in his pockets, and stopped about ten feet from her.

Audrey looked around, confused. “Do I have cooties or something?”

“No. Not that I know of. Why?” Nathan replied, his gaze focused on Audrey’s boots.

“Well, you tore out of the station earlier – Mike’s fine, by the way. No lasting injuries from the way you mowed him down to get out of there – and now you’re standing so far away from me that you might as well be on the next street over.” 

Nathan took a step forward. “Better?”

Audrey rolled her eyes. “What are you, thirteen?” She waved a hand at him. “I’m up here, by the way. Unless you’re trying to subliminally tell me that I have something on my shoes.”

Nathan finally looked at her and a smile slowly began to bloom. “Hi,” he breathed.

Audrey stared at him for a long moment. “Yeah. So anyway, the clerk here at Waterman’s said that she came in at 8:30 to open the place up and that’s when she noticed the new artwork.” 

Audrey walked toward the side of the building, Nathan following at a safe distance. When they reached it, she gestured broadly at the outer wall. “Look familiar?”

“Our hoodlum strikes again,” Nathan said, the first normal contribution he’d made all day.

“Hoodlum?” Audrey said, grinning at him. “Okay, grandpa. I promise we’ll keep those young ruffians away from your begonias.”

Nathan laughed far harder than her joke warranted. Once the laughter subsided, he met her gaze, a dopey smile on his face.

“You’re sure you’re feeling all right?” Audrey asked. At least he wasn’t staring at the ground anymore, but the way he was smiling at her kind of made her wish he’d go back to looking at her boots. 

Nathan stared at her for a long moment, goofy smile in place, and then he seemed to pull himself out of it and took a step backwards, his face going bright red. “Yeah, sure. Never better.”

“Right. Well, I’m going to go back to the station and go over my notes. You headed back that way, or should I catch a ride with Stan?”

Nathan glanced over at Stan then back at Audrey. “I can give you a ride back.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, headed there, anyway.”

*-*-*

When Audrey walked into the station, Laverne immediately flagged her down.

“You and Duke an item?” Laverne asked.

Audrey frowned. “No, why?”

The older woman handed her a stack of messages. “That boy’s been calling every fifteen minutes, seems like.”

“Must be about the case,” Audrey said, flipping through the papers. 

“Must be.” Laverne’s words agreed, but her tone didn’t. 

The first three messages were actually about the case, but the next five were just asking her to give him a call.

Audrey glanced over her shoulder at Laverne. “How did he sound?”

Laverne raised her eyebrows. “He sounded like Duke. What should he have sounded like?”

Audrey fought the urge to roll her eyes. She was fairly sure that Laverne would slap her if she saw it. Instead she sighed, thanked Laverne, and headed to her office to call Duke.

*-*-*

Duke answered on the first ring, sounding out of breath.

“Did I interrupt something?” she asked, and then quickly said, “No, wait, don’t answer that.”

Duke laughed loudly. “No, no, not interrupting anything. So, how are you?”

“I’m fine.” A silence stretched between them for a minute. Audrey could hear the chatter of the breakfast crowd over the phone line. “Duke?”

“Yes, Audrey?”

“Why did you call me?”

“I can’t just call to hear your dulcet tones?”

“I’m hanging up now.”

Duke laughed again. “No, wait, I did call for a reason. I wanted to know how the case is going. Have you found out who graffitied my place?”

Audrey propped her boots up on her desk. “Duke, I can’t give you any information about an ongoing case, even one that affects you personally.”

“Audrey, you’re breakin’ my heart.”

Audrey couldn’t help but smile as she imagined Duke’s feigned hurt expression. “No, I’m not bending the rules for you. You’ll live.”

“Can you tell me anything?”

“I can tell you that it’s a sunny 72 degrees out today.”

“About the case. Pretty please.”

Audrey tapped her pencil on the desk absently. “We’re looking into all possible leads right now, but I’ll let you know when we find something concrete.”

“You are a star, Audrey Parker,” Duke said, a smile evident in his voice. “A beautiful star, might I add.”

“Okay, I’m really hanging up now,” Audrey said and did just that.

She frowned at the case file for a few minutes, mulling over her conversation with Duke. It wasn’t like him to let her get away with a party line like ‘we’re looking into all possible leads right now.’ It was cop-speak for ‘we may or may not have something but I don’t want to make any promises right now,’ and Duke knew it. It wasn’t like him not to call her on what he would normally consider legal bullshit.

Audrey hadn’t lied to him—they were following up on all leads. The problem was that there weren’t many. A forensic sweep of the Grey Gull had found little in the way of clues, and without further evidence, the case was at a standstill. She wasn’t going to admit defeat just yet, though, at least not to Duke.

Nathan came back into the office a few minutes later. Audrey watched as he walked to his desk, took a seat, and with practiced casualness started flipping through one of the case files on his desk. 

After a few minutes of infuriating silence, Nathan said, “So. Who were the messages from?”

Audrey propped her chin on one fist. “Who told you I had messages?”

Nathan shrugged, his eyes carefully not meeting hers. “Laverne.”

“Brown-noser.”

One corner of Nathan’s mouth quirked but he schooled it quickly. “Her or me?”

Audrey frowned. What was with Nathan today? One minute he was an inch from batting his eyelashes at her and the next he couldn’t even look her in the eye. Audrey had never really gotten the whole second-guessing oneself thing, but she had done something to make him act like this. Nathan and Duke had never gotten along as far as Audrey could tell. He couldn't possibly think that she was encouraging Duke's behavior, could he? 

“I don’t know,” she said finally. “It might be a duel to the death.”

Sadly, that hadn’t dissuaded Nathan from his line of questioning. “So?”

“It was Duke calling about the case.”

“All of them?” 

“Duke is nothing if not persistent,” Audrey replied. 

This effectively put an end to the conversation. A muscle in Nathan’s jaw twitched and he didn’t say another word for the next hour.

*-*-*

Duke called back five more times throughout the day to “check on the case.” Then he called another four times just to ask Audrey how she was doing, what she was doing, and who she was with.

“I feel like I’m in high school again,” she muttered at one point after hanging up on Duke for the third time. He’d only gotten out “Hi, it’s—ˮ before she slammed the phone down.

“What?” Nathan glanced up from a report he was writing. 

Audrey sighed. “I said I feel like I’m in high school again.” When Nathan raised his eyebrows questioningly, she continued: “When I was in high school I had this boyfriend who was really…clingy. He used to call me at least once a night, just to ask me what I was doing.”

Nathan smirked. “I take it he wasn’t your boyfriend long?”

“Two weeks.” Audrey tapped her pencil on her desk. “I don’t do well with clingy.”

The fact of the matter was that Audrey didn’t do well with boyfriends, period, but she wasn’t about to admit that to Nathan. Being partners and friends, they talked about a lot, but this wasn’t one of those things. Nathan already thought that she didn’t have any friends; to admit that the two weeks with her high school boyfriend had been her second-longest relationship ever was something that she wouldn’t admit unless under pain of death, or a lot of tequila at the very least.

And speaking of high school…

“So you and Duke really aren’t dating?”

Audrey made a face. “No. Not even close. He keeps pestering me about the case. And how I am, for some reason.”

“Maybe he wants to date you,” Nathan suggested with forced casualness. 

Audrey narrowed her eyes. “Did you hit your head?”

Nathan blushed and looked back down at his report. “I don’t think so. Why?”

“That’s the only reason I can think of for you to suggest that I’m dating Duke: traumatic brain injury.”

Just as she finished speaking, a faint voice out in the bullpen called, “Is there an Audrey Parker here? Audrey Parker?”

Audrey frowned and got up from her chair to see who had called her name. A young man was standing by Stan’s desk, holding a giant bouquet of roses. The officers were all watching him with expressions that varied from wary to amused, but none of them were helping him by pointing her out.

“Oh, don’t tell me,” she muttered, but the young man had caught sight of her on his own and crossed the bullpen to meet her.

“Are you Audrey Parker?” he asked, peering at her from around the bouquet. There must have been at least three dozen roses, Audrey figured.

“Unfortunately,” she replied and was summarily handed the bouquet as the kid made his escape.

Audrey set the bouquet down on the nearest desk to pluck out the card. 

There were several wolf whistles around the station from the officers who had gathered to take a look. In her short time in Haven, Audrey had discovered that the cops loved a show; it didn’t matter if it was one of their own who was providing the entertainment.

“Who are they from, Audrey?” one of the patrolmen called to her.

“Yeah,” another one said. “You got a secret admirer?”

I wish it was a secret, she thought as she read the note: These were the most beautiful roses I could find, and they’re still not half as beautiful as you are. All my love ~ Duke.

She glanced back toward her office to see Nathan standing in the doorway, his face stony. He met her gaze for a moment before he walked stiffly passed her and out of the office. 

“I am going to kill Duke,” Audrey muttered.

She took the bouquet around the corner to Laverne and set it on the older woman’s desk.

“You don’t want them?” Laverne asked, turning the bouquet this way and that to see the entire bouquet.

“I’m allergic,” Audrey said, and hurried back to her office before she could get any follow up questions, tearing up Duke’s note as she walked.

*-*-*

Audrey wandered into Marlee’s far too early the next morning, her sunglasses and a headache firmly in place. It was her day off, and it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. After Duke’s flowers showed up, Nathan had made himself scarce, only coming into their shared office once. He had refused to meet her eyes, grabbed a bunch of papers and files off of his desk, and promptly dropped half of them on the floor in his hurry to leave. When Audrey got up from her desk to help him retrieve them, Nathan had blushed so fiercely that Audrey swore she could feel the heat from his face even if he couldn’t. Nathan had muttered something unintelligible and nearly ran from the room, forgetting the files he had come in to grab. She hadn’t seen him for the rest of the day.

Marlee’s cafe was nearly empty except for a few patrons and Jake who was sitting at the counter, drawing in a sketch pad.

“Hey, Marlee,” Audrey said, sliding onto the stool next to Jake’s. “Coffee. Black. Lots of it, and keep it coming.”

“You all right?” Marlee said, frowning at her. She filled a mug of coffee down the counter at a safe distance as though she was afraid Audrey made explode at any moment. 

“You know that saying, give me liberty or give me death?” Marlee nodded. “Screw liberty.”

“Bad night?”

Audrey sipped her coffee and for a moment her concentration was solely on keeping it down. It didn’t help that she preferred her coffee doctored within an inch of its life, but the thought of that much sugar made her want to hurl. “Bad couple of days.” She glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the cafe, but she didn’t recognize any of the other patrons. “If Nathan or Duke come in, tell them I’m not here.”

Marlee gave her a look like she was contemplating ducking into the back and making an inconspicuous call to the Freddie. Considering that her life had turned into a soap opera in a matter of a few days, Audrey really couldn’t argue with her logic.

“Um, I think they’ll see you,” Marlee said slowly.

“Then you create a diversion and I’ll make a run for it.” Audrey rubbed a hand over her forehead, waiting for a wave of pressure and pain to subside. “Or maybe it’ll be enough of a diversion when I throw up on their shoes.”

“Are you sure you should be up?” Marlee asked, setting a cup of water beside Audrey’s coffee mug. “I used to get terrible migraines when I was pregnant with Jake. Couldn’t stand to be upright until they passed.” She smiled absently at the memory. “My Michael used to bring me anything I asked for—cold compresses, Tylenol, soup. He would even give me foot massages.” 

“Sounds nice,” Audrey commented.

“It was. We didn’t have nearly as many years together as we should’ve, but especially when Jake was young, I don’t know what I would’ve done without him. To have someone who’s always there for you—it’s something special. I don’t know how you do it, not having someone to help shoulder the responsibility.” 

“I get by,” Audrey said. Marlee liked leading statements that begged Audrey to give up information about herself. Marlee was far too polite to come right out and ask 90% of the questions that were no doubt swimming around in her head, but Audrey could sense them all the same.

Audrey had learned long ago that folks might think they wanted every crumb of backstory on people they didn’t know, but in reality, they didn’t. The dark recesses of other people’s lives made them feel emotions they didn’t expect—guilt, usually. Sometimes envy or anger or horror or inadequacy, or some à la carte combination.

Audrey didn’t know what it was like to have someone bring her soup when she was sick or comfort her when she was scared. No one had brought her flowers or screamed their support when she graduated from high school or college or even the Academy. She didn’t know what it was like to have someone help out with the mundane tasks of life – grocery shopping, comparing insurance quotes, or returning library books.

But she didn’t need that. The only grocery shopping she did was to stock up on coffee and Pop-Tarts, she never got stuff out of the library, and she’s hadn’t really gotten sick since the epic Cold of ’07 when her boss made her take the day off because she kept sneezing on the case files. Soup would’ve been nice then, but that’s why God made delivery, wasn’t it?

“I’ll be fine,” Audrey said. “Really. It’s just a headache.”

Marlee’s answering look made it clear that she though Audrey was full of something, but another early morning customer came in and distracted her before she could vocalize it.

Audrey sipped her coffee in silence, watching Jake sketch as she did so. The boy seemed to relish the quiet as much as she did. She could imagine that with working at a busy café, it was best to enjoy it while it lasted.

Jake’s sketches were good – a little abstract for Audrey’s taste, but good.

“You ever think about becoming an artist?” Audrey asked him.

Jake glanced at her, surprised, as though he had forgotten she was there. When she told him that she liked his work, he gave her a shy smile.

“Thanks,” he said, adding some shading to a figure in one corner of the paper. “My mom says art is a good hobby, but she doesn’t think it’s useful.”

Audrey shrugged. It wasn’t her place to disagree with Marlee’s wishes, but Jake obviously had talent and loved what he was doing. “I don’t know,” Audrey said. “Just because you love to draw doesn’t mean you have to be a starving artist. There are a lot of jobs where you could use your skills.”

Jake nodded, but his expression brightened as he studied his sketchpad.

“More coffee, Audrey?” Marlee said, coming back around the counter.

Audrey shook her head and immediately wished she hadn’t. “I think I’m going to go home and try to take a nap. Sleep off the edge.” 

She took a final sip of coffee then waved goodbye as she left before the other woman could get in another word.

*-*-*

Audrey spent an hour staring up at the ceiling, feeling the pressure in her head before the pain eased enough to drift off to sleep. 

It felt like only moments after she fell asleep that she was woken again. At first she didn’t know what had woken her. Her head still hurt, though the pounding had subsided to a dull ache, but she didn’t think that it was the pain that had woken her. 

She closed her eyes again and that’s when she heard it: music.

For a long confused moment she thought that it was the radio on her alarm before she realized that the music was coming from outside.

Audrey rolled out of bed, only just landing on her feet, and wandered over to the window to see who was making all the noise.

She pushed the window open and stuck her head out. Duke was standing on the sidewalk below, fingers plucking out a rough-shod version of ‘Your Song’ on an acoustic guitar.

“Duke,” Audrey said, wiping one hand over her eyes in case she was seeing things. She wasn’t. “What in the world are you doing?”

“And you can tell everybody,” Duke warbled, “that this is your song.”

“I’d rather it was somebody else’s song,” Audrey muttered. She raised her voice to be heard over his singing. “Duke, please stop.”

There were a few people on the street who had stopped to stare at the spectacle. Audrey wasn’t one to embarrass easily, but she found herself pressing up against the side of the window frame in an attempt to stay away from prying eyes.

“Duke!” she called again, but he steadfastly ignored her, switching his song choice to “Brown-Eyed Girl.” Audrey rolled her decidedly not brown eyes. “They’re blue, Duke, and I’m going to taze you if you don’t knock it off.”

Duke continued singing, sending her an outrageous wink as he upped the volume.

“All right,” she said. “You asked for it.” 

Audrey grabbed her phone and dialed quickly. “Mike? Hi, it’s Audrey Parker. I have a situation…”

*-*-*

A squad car showed up about ten minutes later, and Mike Brandt and Pete Nichols got out. Pete frowned at Duke, but Mike immediately headed over to where Audrey stood in the doorway.

“Sorry, Audrey,” he started to say but trailed off when Nathan’s truck pulled up. Mike glanced over his shoulder at the vehicle then turned back to Audrey and shrugged apologetically. “He followed us here.”

Audrey sighed as she watched Nathan climb out of his truck. “It’s okay, Mike.” She pointed at Duke. “You take care of that one. And if you have to resort to police brutality, I won’t say anything if you don’t.”

Mike looked startled at this, but he hadn’t been subjected to Duke’s repertoire of cheesy love songs. Duke had at least refrained from any Celine Dion (which was the only reason that his kneecaps were still in good condition), but Audrey’s patience was hanging on by a rapidly fraying thread.

Audrey pulled her sweater tighter around herself and approached Nathan.

“You didn’t think to break his guitar?” he suggested with a glimmer of his old wry humor. 

“I thought about it,” she said, “but his vocal chords would still be working all too well.”

As she drew closer she noticed the color in Nathan’s face slowly drain away until his face was more or less blending in with his beige sweater. 

“You look about as good as I feel,” she said. 

“I’m fine,” Nathan said, shortly. He moved a few feet back to lean against his truck. “So what are the charges? Taken hostage by love songs?”

“Behavior likely to make me beat him to death with his own guitar?” Audrey suggested. 

Nathan’s smile was strained as he shook his head. “I don’t think we can get that one to stick.”

“You haven’t been listening to him sing for the last half an hour.”

“He doesn’t have a bad voice,” Nathan replied. He stared over Audrey’s shoulder to where Mike and Pete were trying to talk Duke into giving up his guitar peacefully. 

“No, he doesn’t,” Audrey agreed. An odd flicker passed over Nathan’s face. If Audrey didn’t know any better she could’ve sworn it looked like pain. “If he was singing in a bar or a club it would be fine; when he’s singing outside of my apartment while I’m trying to take a nap, it’s less fine.”

“Audrey!” Duke yelled to her. 

She ignored him. “Violation of the noise ordinance at the very least.”

“Audrey, don’t do this!”

Nathan shrugged and bobbed his head. “We can probably do that.”

Audrey narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not as enthusiastic about arresting him as you normally are.”

Nathan shrugged again and took another step back, resting one hand on the frame of the windshield. “I’m not sure this is an arrestable offense. Seems like a lovers’ spat to me.”

Audrey glowered at her partner. “For the last time, Duke is not now nor has ever been my boyfriend.” She jerked a thumb at the man in question. “If he keeps up this weirdness he’ll be lucky if we’re on speaking terms.”

“I love you, Audrey!” Duke yelled to her as Mike and Pete herded him towards the squad car.

Audrey closed her eyes and said quietly, “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

When she opened her eyes again, Nathan was staring at her. He gave her a wan smile and said, “You’ll need to give a statement down at the station.” 

"Nathan, did I do something wrong?" Audrey asked quietly.

Nathan frowned, momentarily caught off-guard, and then his expression went carefully blank. "No. Why?"

"I feel like you're running away from me, like you can't be in the same room as me anymore. We've barely talked the last couple of days."

Nathan crossed his arms over his chest. "We're talking now."

"No," Audrey snapped, just about at the end of her patience. "I'm doing most of the talking. You keep trying to escape the talking." Her voice softened and she asked, "Is this because of Duke? Because I honestly don't know where that's coming from."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Nathan said shortly, before getting in his truck and following the squad car down the street.

“That's what I'm talking about," she said, watching Nathan disappear down the street.

*-*-*

When Audrey finally arrived at the station (in a car which she may or may not have told her neighbor she was commandeering on police business) Duke was in one of the interview rooms, a vacant smile on his face. He was humming to himself, and if Audrey was any judge it sounded like he was humming ‘Lady in Red.’ That had been number three on his earlier set list; Audrey wasn’t looking forward to a repeat.

“We need to move you into some more recent songs,” Audrey said as she took a seat across the table from him. Duke's face took on a benevolent glow, and before he could launch into his version of a Justin Bieber song, Audrey held up a hand. “That was not an invitation.”

“But, Audrey!” Duke started to say, his face falling as though she had insulted his very reason for being.

“No ‘but Audreys’,” she said. “What has gotten into you lately?”

She was half-expecting that one of his mischievous expressions would cross his face, and he would let her in on the big cosmic joke. Instead he wore an expression of total innocence that Audrey had a hard time believing, because, honestly? When was the last time that Duke had been one hundred percent innocent? Maybe the first year of his life, and that was probably only because he had to wait until he could walk to make a fast enough getaway. 

“I don't know what you mean,” Duke said. 

“Bringing me coffee? Calling me all the time? Singing love songs outside my window for half an hour? Not to mention the flowers.” Audrey said, ticking off the list on her fingers.

“But Audrey,” Duke said with stomach-curdling sincerity, “I love you.” He reached across the table and took one of her hands in both of his. “This is what you do when you love someone.”

“No,” Audrey said, trying to extricate her hand from his grip, “this is what you do when you’re stalking someone.”

Duke laughed. “Oh, Audrey, I love your sense of humor.”

“Please stop saying that word.”

“Love?” Duke’s smile was a little too…everything: too bright, too heartfelt, too programmed. “But it’s true. I’ve just been waiting for the right time to tell you how much I truly love you.”

And then he leaned over the table, his face coming within six inches of hers before it occurred to Audrey that Duke was trying to kiss her. She did the only thing she could think of: she slapped him.

She immediately regretted it. “Sorry! Sorry,” she said, wincing as she saw the red hand print that had welled up on his face.

Duke pressed a hand to his cheek, scrunching up that side of his face as though trying to determine how much it really hurt.

“Ow,” he said finally.

Which was a little surprising actually. Not the ‘ow’ part; she had hit him pretty hard, but the fact that he wasn’t immediately screaming about police brutality. Audrey and Duke had a tenuous friendship, but Audrey didn’t think that friendship extended to one friend letting the other friend do something so humiliating. Besides, Duke’s dislike of the police far outdated their friendship.

“Are you okay?” Audrey asked. “Maybe I should get you some ice.”

“Oh, Audrey,” Duke said. He started to smile, but it turned into a wince. “Maybe some ice would be good.”

Audrey came back into the interview room with a baggie of ice wrapped in a towel which Duke pressed to his cheek. 

“Better?” she said.

“You’re so good to me, Audrey,” Duke said, and Audrey swore that he batted his eyelashes at her.

Audrey sat back down on her side of the table. “Actually, I’m not, unless you conveniently forgot that I just slapped you.”

“My behavior was uncalled for,” he said with a wholesome sincerity that somehow managed to be both cloying and creepy at the same time. “You had every right.”

“Duke, you are seriously weirding me out,” she said. She watched him for a moment and he met her gaze, smiling beatifically at her as though she hadn't just assaulted him a moment ago. "Duke?"

"Yes, Audrey?"

"How long have you been in love," she choked a little on the word but powered through, "with me?"

Duke sighed happily. "Oh, it feels like just yesterday that I realized my feelings for you."

Audrey frowned. She couldn't remember any incident in the past few days that would have signaled a newly-realized Trouble, but she supposed that Duke's behavior could be the effect of one. She had seen the Troubles wreak havoc on others’ personalities so it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.

There was a knock on the interview room door and Nathan stuck his head in, gesturing for Audrey to follow him.

“What’s up?” she asked when she got out into the hallway.

“Got another vandalism,” he said, looking at the floor. 

Audrey waited, but after a moment it became clear that he was done talking. "Are we going to pretend our earlier conversation never happened?"

Nathan shook his head, not looking up, so Audrey reached out a hand. When she touched his arm, Nathan jumped back as though she had burned him. She immediately pulled her hand back and Nathan shuffled a few steps away. 

"You don't suppose," she started to say, then trailed off. It occurred to her that whatever Trouble was affecting Duke might also be affecting Nathan. It didn’t seem like the same pattern though; Duke was in love with her while Nathan couldn’t stand to be around her. Audrey had been in Haven a relatively short amount of time, but it always seemed like the Troubles affected multiple individuals in a similar way. Blaming Duke and Nathan’s behavior on the Troubles could be accurate or it could be an easy out. Maybe she had done something to Nathan and hadn’t realized it. And maybe Duke really was in love with her, though that one sounded a little more suspect. Audrey was no expert on romance, but even she knew that surprise declarations of love happened in the movies far more than they ever happened in real life.

“What?” he asked.

Audrey shook her head. She didn’t want to jump to conclusions until she had time to sort through everything that had happened. “I’ll tell you later. You said there was another vandalism?”

“General store over on Evergreen,” Nathan told the baseboards. “I know it’s your day off, but since you’ve been handling it, I was wondering if you wanted to take it.”

Well, it wasn’t like her day off had been going that well, anyway. “Fine. Just keep Duke here until I get back. We don’t have to charge him with anything yet, and I don’t want him wandering around where he can jump out and serenade people.”

Nathan nodded and walked back to their office without another word, shutting the door behind him. Audrey figured that that was about as good as it was going to get for now.

*-*-*

When Audrey arrived at the Haven General Store, Stan was inside talking with Milt Erickson, the general manager. She introduced herself and flashed her badge which Mr. Erickson insisted on inspecting closely. He even went so far as to hold her ID picture up to her face to compare the two likenesses. Audrey could tell that they were going to get along like a house on fire.

“Mr. Erickson, would you mind answering a few questions,” she asked.

“I already answered a few questions,” Mr. Erickson said. He jerked a thumb at Stan and added, “His questions.”

Audrey gave him as sweet a smile as she could muster. “I know, sir, but if I could hear it from you it would make this process go just that much faster.”

Mr. Erickson sighed loudly, as though their investigation was more of an inconvenience than the crime itself, but he relayed what he had already told Stan: he had been in the back of the store doing inventory when he’d heard a crash on the side of the building. He had gone outside to see what the noise was when he saw someone run down the alley. When he looked to where the figure had come from he saw the graffiti on the side of the building.

“Did you see what made the noise, Mr. Erickson?” Audrey asked, jotting down his story in her notebook.

“I was just getting to that, officer," Mr. Erickson said with a huff of displeasure. "Carl, one of my employees, had stacked some pallets on the dumpster out back. Damn kid must have been up there when he was defacing my store, and knocked them down when he ran away.”

Audrey nodded. “Can you tell me anything about the suspect?”

Mr. Erickson screwed up his face in concentration. “Teenage boy, I think. Skinny. Sorta gangly-looking. Dark hair, but I didn’t see his face.”

“Could you tell me what he was wearing?”

“Jeans. Dark hooded sweatshirt – black, I think, or maybe blue. And sneakers. The kind the kids on skateboards wear, not the kind that basketball players wear.”

Audrey raised her eyebrows. The description left a bit to be desired, but it was a start. “One last question: do you have security cameras here?”

Mr. Erickson shook his head. “Inside the store, but that’s all.”

That was more than they’d had at either the Grey Gull or the hardware store, so she sent Stan to collect the recordings while she went outside to take a look around.

Beth, one of Haven PD’s crime scene techs, was taking pictures of the alley and the new artwork when Audrey walked up. Beth stopped momentarily to greet Audrey and point out a few things – some fingerprints she had found on the dumpster and the fact that the tagger’s exit was blocked by a chain-link fence which he would’ve had to scale to get out.

“I’ll run the prints when I get back to the station,” Beth said, “but if he’s a teenager it’s highly unlikely that his prints are in the system.”

“Thanks, Beth.” Audrey walked back toward the side of the building which was now emblazoned with giant swirls of graffiti in primary and secondary colors.

“You know,” Beth said, tilting her head to the side as she considered it. “It’s actually not bad. For graffiti. Kinda looks like Kandinsky’s work – very expressionist.” She grinned when she caught Audrey’s expression. “I studied art history in college before I decided that a degree in criminology might be a little more practical.”

“Right,” Audrey said, staring up at the graffiti. “I’ll take your word for it. Kandinsky, I mean.”

Beth smiled and started packing up her supplies, but Audrey stopped her. “Beth, you were at the two other crime scenes, weren’t you?”

Beth nodded, her eyes on her work. “Yeah, I worked both of them. Why?”

Audrey pointed to one design in the upper corner. It looked like a red and black checkerboard being pulled down a drain. “Do you remember seeing that at either the Grey Gull or the hardware store?”

“No,” Beth replied, glancing up at Audrey, “but I can pull up the pictures when I get back to the station.”

“I know I’ve seen that somewhere before,” Audrey murmured. “But where?”

*-*-*

Beth sent the pictures to Audrey’s computer as promised, and Audrey spent an hour combing through them. There was nothing that came close to the design on the Haven General Store, and Audrey still couldn’t remember where she had seen it before although she was certain that it was recently.

What made this all the harder was that she felt like her partner had gone MIA. Even when he was there physically he seemed like he wanted to be anywhere but. She missed having someone to bounce ideas off of, but more than that, she just missed him.

When Nathan crept into the office a little while later, Audrey was ready for him. As soon as he was far enough into the room, she closed the door behind him and leaned her back against it, effectively cutting off his escape route unless he decided to physically move her.

“Nathan, we need to talk,” she said.

Nathan looked like the proverbial caged animal, but to his credit he didn’t try to gnaw his way to freedom. Instead, he nodded his head and stared down at his desk like a truant schoolboy.

“I don’t know what has gotten into you or Duke lately. Maybe this is because of the Troubles or maybe it's all down to something I did, but we need to get to the bottom of this,” she went on. “I can’t do my job while I’m trying to fend off Duke, and I work better with you. When we work as a team.” Nathan didn’t look like he was going to make a break for it, so Audrey decided she was safe to stop guarding the door. She perched on the edge of her desk. “I need my partner back, and it would really help if you could at least look at me.”

“It’s better if I don’t,” Nathan said quietly. He didn’t raise his head as he went on: “If you don’t want a display at least as embarrassing as Duke serenading you, it’s better if I don’t look at you.”

“Why? You can’t possible want to serenade me,” Audrey said.

“No, not serenade you,” Nathan agreed. He finally looked up at her and Audrey was a little surprised that there was no thunder or music to mark the occasion. Nathan had made it sound so dramatic that she was half-expecting it.

She certainly wasn’t expecting him to push back his chair, cross the room in two steps, and kiss her.

Audrey was so surprised that it took her a long moment to realize what was happening and then another long moment to realize that she was kissing him back. Sensation flooded in – the feel of his lips against hers, the smell of his aftershave, the pressure of his hands on her back – and with it, reality. They shouldn’t be doing this – not here and not like this.

“Nathan,” she murmured against his lips. Hearing his name seemed to shake some sense it him because Nathan pulled away and stumbled back a few feet, his breathing ragged and a poleaxed expression on his face.

“I am so sorry,” Nathan said, sounding stricken. He looked as though he had run over her dog, not as though he had kissed her. He backed up until he was on the other side of the room again, standing pressed against the far wall.

“Don’t be sorry,” Audrey said and meant it. She’d be lying if she said that she hadn’t thought about what it would be like to kiss Nathan, although it certainly hadn’t been like this with him under the influence of something. Audrey wasn’t sorry that it had happened, but she was sorry about the circumstances that had led to it. And if she was a betting woman, she would put money down his and Duke’s behavior being related to the Troubles. 

In her time in Haven, Audrey had seen a lot of terrible things that came from the Troubles, but this wasn’t one of them. And while she knew that their friendship may have passed the point of no return with this simple thing, she never wanted Nathan to feel sorry for what had just happened. 

“Okay, Nathan,” she said, trying to sound as calm as she could. “You don’t have to look at me, but I need you to tell me what you’re feeling.”

“You really don’t want to know,” Nathan said with a weak smile, his gaze focused on the ceiling.

Audrey tried not to follow that line of thinking and said, “Keep it as PG as you can.”

Nathan let out a shaky breath. “I need to be near you, to touch you. I want to – to – to kiss you.”

“Later,” Audrey said, the word slipping out before she could stop it. “You’re doing great, Nathan. What else?”

“I want to comfort you, to protect you, to let you know that you’re not alone.”

Something surfaced in Audrey’s memory as soon as he said that. “Nathan, when did Marlee’s husband pass away?”

“He didn’t,” Nathan replied through gritted teeth. “He left her about six months ago. Ran off to Portland with his secretary.”

“Nathan,” Audrey said. “Stay here. And if I’m right, I think I can stop this.”

Nathan huffed out a short, strained laugh as she grabbed his keys off of his desk. “Not going anywhere.”

*-*-*

The sign on the door of Marlee’s cafe proclaimed them to be closed when Audrey arrived, but all the lights were on. She tried the door and found it to be locked as well, despite the fact that the cafe should’ve been busy with the dinner rush.

Audrey knocked on the door and called for both Marlee and Jake but no one came to the door. She went around to the rear of the restaurant and tried the back door. It was locked as she’d expected, but it didn’t hurt to try.

Audrey circled the building once before she realized that, like a lot of the businesses in Haven, there was an apartment above the café. She jogged up the stairs and knocked on the door.

“Marlee?” she called. “Are you there? It’s Audrey Parker.”

The door opened to reveal Jake and not Marlee as Audrey had been expecting.

“Hey, Jake,” Audrey said, trying not to sound as rushed as she felt. “Is your mom home?”

Jake nodded and let Audrey inside. “She’s in the kitchen,” he said, his gaze going to the far door before looking back at Audrey. “I think it’s my fault.”

Audrey’s chest tightened. She had assumed that Marlee was behind whatever was happening to Nathan and Duke, but it wouldn’t be the first time that she had been wrong about who was actually the Troubled party. Audrey reached out and put a gentle hand on Jake’s arm. “What’s your fault, Jake?”

Jake ducked his head. “She’s been crying, and it’s my fault. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but…” He trailed off, his eyes red as though he was about to start crying himself.

Audrey smiled kindly. “Jake, start at the beginning. What weren’t you supposed to do?”

Jake grabbed his sketch pad off of the couch, flipped to one of the pages, and held it out for Audrey’s inspection. It was a rough sketch of the graffiti mural on the side of the Haven General Store. Audrey didn’t think that it was a copy either—this was a mock-up.

“Mom found out,” Jake said quietly as Audrey flipped through the rest of the sketch book. There were mock-ups of the graffiti from both Waterman’s Hardware Store and the Grey Gull as well as a few more that hadn’t made an appearance on any buildings yet. “She flipped. She started yelling at me. Mom said this never would’ve happened if my dad was still around.” Jake ran a hand through his hair, his voice rising in frustration. “But it has nothing to do with that, it never did! I don’t care that he’s gone, but she thinks everything would be perfect if he hadn’t left. It was never perfect. She just doesn’t remember that.”

Audrey nodded and gave Jake’s arm a squeeze. “Jake, I’m gonna go talk to your mom, okay? Stay here.”

Jake nodded miserably, and Audrey went into the kitchen.

Marlee was sitting at her kitchen table, staring into an empty tea cup. She wasn’t crying, but it was clear from her red-rimmed eyes and the tracks down her cheeks that the tears had only recently stopped.

“I did the best I could,” Marlee said in a flat voice as Audrey took a seat at the table. “I tried to be a good wife, a good mother, but it just wasn’t good enough. Why did this happen? What did I do wrong?”

“Marlee,” Audrey said softly. Marlee finally looked up, the pain she was feeling clearly reflected in her eyes. Audrey’s heart went out to her. “I don’t know what happened between you and your husband, but I don’t think you did anything wrong. No matter what you did or didn’t do, he was the one who made the decision to leave. And as for Jake, he’s a good kid.”

“But he told me what he did, how he vandalized those buildings!” Marlee cut in with a choked sob.

Audrey nodded. “I know. We have to charge him with misdemeanor vandalism, but he made a stupid decision. He’s not the first teenager who made a bad choice, and he won’t be the last. I’m not saying that what he did was okay, but it’s his first offense, and I’ll testify that he came forward and claimed responsibility. I’ll try my best to make sure that at worst he gets probation.”

Marlee sniffed and wiped at an errant tear. “You would do that?”

Audrey smiled. “Like I said, he’s a good kid who really cares about you. He has a lot of talent, too. I’d hate to see that go to waste.”

Marlee grabbed Audrey’s hand and squeezed it. “Thank you.”

Audrey wished that she could leave it at that, a mother grateful for a kindness shown to her child, but Marlee needed to know the whole truth. “Marlee, I need to tell you something else.”

Marlee blanched. “Jake didn’t do something else did he? He told me it was just the graffiti.”

“It’s not about Jake,” Audrey said slowly. “Marlee, have you heard of the Troubles?”

Marlee frowned. “A little bit, mostly stories from the last time.”

Audrey took a deep breath, hoping that Marlee wouldn’t take this as badly as Audrey thought she might. “Marlee, the day after Nathan Wuornos and I were in your café, both he and Duke Crocker started acting strangely.”

Marlee’s frown deepened in confusion. “Strangely how?”

“They both started acting like they were, well, like they were in love with me. Duke started sending me flowers, calling me all the time. He even stood outside my place and serenaded me. Nathan’s been getting flustered every time he comes within five feet of me. He can barely look me in the eye.”

Marlee’s expression brightened when she heard this. “See? I told you they were interested in you.”

Audrey put her other hand on top of Marlee’s. “Not like this. Marlee, they can’t help it. Nathan told me himself that his feelings are bordering on obsessive and he can’t stop it.” 

Marlee stared at her, not comprehending what Audrey was saying, so Audrey decided that maybe the straight approach was best.

“Marlee, I think that you might be Troubled.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“When Nathan and I were in your café, you said that both he and Duke were vying for my attention, and then the next day they suddenly were. When I came into the café later, you told me about how your husband used to take care of you, and you said that you didn’t know how I did it by myself.” From the look on Marlee’s face, Audrey could tell that the other woman was starting to put the pieces together. Audrey continued, “I think your fears of being alone spilled over into your Trouble, and it’s decided that this is the best way to ensure that I'm not alone.”

“No one should be alone,” Marlee said softly.

Audrey squeezed Marlee’s hand as a voice from behind them said, “You’re not alone, mom.”

Audrey glanced back to see Jake standing in the doorway. He walked over and took a seat at the table. “You’re not alone,” he repeated.

When Marlee smiled at him, Audrey wondered if this was the first time that Marlee was really seeing Jake since the day her husband left. She was so wrapped up in what she had lost that she had forgotten about what she still had.

“But what about you?” Marlee said, turning her attention back to Audrey.

Audrey shrugged one shoulder. “I never had anyone before I came to Haven, but I haven’t felt alone since I arrived.” They weren’t just words to pacify Marlee; it was the truth. She had good friends and a great partner. Before she met Nathan, she’d never had someone she trusted so completely. If she was being completely honest with herself, it would hurt when things went back to normal, to know that Nathan's feelings for her were an illusion. But she told herself that even if they were never more than friends, Audrey would consider herself fortunate.

“Are you sure?” Marlee asked, her expression concerned. “It can’t be all bad to have Duke and Nathan in love with you.”

“Mom,” Jake chided, rolling his eyes.

Thinking back to what both Duke and Nathan had said about their feelings, Audrey wasn’t sure that she and Marlee had the same definition of love, but it was probably best not to bring that up right now. “I’m very sure,” she said with a smile. “I’d rather have both of them back as their old bickering selves. "In fact," Audrey said, "I wouldn’t have them any other way,” and almost believed it.

*-*-*

After accepting both Marlee’s thanks and Jake’s promise that he would turn himself in at the police station the next morning, Audrey left the pair alone. She knew that she should probably take Jake in immediately, but they’d all had a traumatic enough day. A little compassion couldn’t hurt, and neither could letting things settle down first.

Audrey had only driven a few blocks when her cell phone rang. 

“Audrey Parker,” she answered.

“Audrey?” It was Duke, his voice sounding hesitant through the line. “Stan said I could have one phone call, and I thought I’d better call you before you get back to the station and kill me.”

Audrey grinned. “I take it you remember the last few days.”

“Um, yes,” Duke confirmed, although his tone made it sound like he wasn’t certain whether the truth was the best course of action. “I don’t say this often, but I’m really sorry. I don’t know what got into me. I mean, ‘More Than Words’? The least I could’ve done was sing you some Johnny Cash.”

Audrey laughed just from relief at hearing Duke sound like himself again. “Don’t forget ‘Lady in Red’.”

“Don’t remind me,” Duke groaned. “How many people heard it?”

“I think it’s fair to say that you’ll get at least three invitations to be a wedding singer this summer,” Audrey said. Then, “Duke?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s nice to have you back.”

*-*-*

When Audrey arrived back at the station, she made sure that Duke was released immediately. He thanked her profusely in between apologies, although Audrey suspected that he was afraid she might hit him again.

“Just promise me that you won’t bring me any coffee for a while,” Audrey said and ushered him out the door.

She was disappointed to find her office empty, and when she asked Laverne where Nathan had disappeared to, the older woman shrugged. 

“Left about fifteen minutes ago. Didn’t say where he was going, and I didn’t ask.”

That seemed to be the end of the conversation, so Audrey left it alone. Nathan probably needed some breathing room and time to sort through what had happened. They would need to talk about it eventually, but neither of them was going anywhere, so if it was breathing room that Nathan needed then Audrey would give him as much as he needed.

*-*-*

Later that evening Audrey was pulling her dinner out of the microwave in her motel room when she glanced out the window and saw Nathan outside. He was leaning against the side of his truck, arms crossed over his chest. When he looked up and saw her, his lips quirked in a self-deprecating smile that she recognized and he gave her a half-wave.

Audrey jogged down the stairs and out onto the street. 

“You know,” she said when she was within earshot, “I had a crazy stalker who did something like this once.”

“Ah, but you’ll notice that I’m not singing,” Nathan said.

“I don’t think that the singing part has anything to do with the definition of ‘stalker’.” Audrey leaned on the truck next to him and gently nudged his shoulder with her own. “How are you feeling?”

He met her gaze for what seemed like the first time in forever without staring or stammering or taking a giant leap away from her. He smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Better. A lot less crazy.” When she smirked, he held up one index finger. “No comments from the peanut gallery.”

Audrey grinned and ducked her head. “That’s good. Back to your old self.” They stood like that, leaning against Nathan’s truck in companionable silence for several minutes before Audrey said, “Was it really so bad being in love?” She didn’t add _with me_. 

Nathan shook his head. “That wasn’t love. That was mindless adoration.”

“No, with Duke it was mindless adoration. With you it was…something else.”

Nathan shrugged as he gazed down the road. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a minute or so, Audrey tapped the toe of her boot against the side of Nathan’s shoe. “So?”

“So what?” he said.

Audrey glared at him and turned the tap into more of a kick this time. “We’re not playing this game, Nathan. Not after what’s happened the last few days.”

“Come on. Let’s go for a walk,” Nathan said. He put his hand on the small of her back and gently urged her toward the marina. 

“All right,” she said when they’d gone a few yards. “We’re walking. What now?” 

Nathan didn’t say anything, but his pace sped up a little. Audrey wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but she was damned sure going to find out sooner rather than later. She’d had enough of avoidance and secrets to last a lifetime. Nathan had begun out-distancing her, but Audrey jogged a few steps to keep up with his long-legged stride. “Nathan?” When he showed no sign of slowing, she grabbed his arm and yanked. “Nathan, stop!”

Nathan came to a halt and extracted his arm from her grip. “Ow,” he said and rubbed his arm. Audrey figured he said it just to prove a point. 

“Yeah, well, that’s what you get.” She crossed her arms over her chest and faced him. “Now, what is going on?”

“I…I have these feelings,” Nathan said, his face going a deep pink. “For you.”

Audrey said the only thing she could think of: “What?” Then a horrible thought occurred to her, and she said, “This isn’t still because of Marlee—“

Nathan assured her it wasn’t. “I had these…feelings before that.”

Audrey felt as though her heart had done a little twirl and dive at his words, but before she could say anything, Nathan continued, his words tumbling out of him like a waterfall: “When I started feeling the effects of Marlee’s Trouble, I couldn’t tell what was what. I had felt this way about you for some time, but suddenly I couldn’t stand to be away from you. I wanted to be near you, to talk to you, to be with you.” As he spoke, his gaze traveled over her face as though memorizing every detail before returning once again to meet her eyes.

“But you practically ran away from me,” Audrey pointed out. “Until, well…you know.”

Nathan nodded and started walking again, this time at a more measured pace. Audrey followed suit. “I felt like I was, I don’t know…drowning in emotion.”

“You could have told me,” she pointed out.

“What would I have said?” Nathan argued when Audrey brought this up. “’Hey, Parker, I’m in love with you, but I’m not usually this jealous or possessive so something else must be going on, let’s go investigate?’”

Audrey immediately put her hand on Nathan’s arm again and he obediently stopped. “Did you just say that you’re in love with me?”

Nathan glanced up and down the sidewalk. “Well, yeah. What did you think we were talking about?”

“I don’t know. You just said you had ‘feelings’.”

“What do you think I meant?”

Audrey didn’t quite know whether to laugh or cry, so she settled for something in between. “I don’t know,” she said again. “Feelings could mean anything. It’s not a specific kind of word. And the way you said _feelings_ made it sound more like a communicable disease that you’ve caught and not, you know, _love_.”

Audrey didn’t realize that she was pacing until Nathan caught her by the shoulders and gently turned her to face him.

“Audrey.” 

Audrey looked up at him. He was smiling down at her – a smile that she hadn’t seen before. It was bright and soft and did things to her heart that she didn’t think could possibly be safe. Except she didn’t want it to end. 

“Breathe,” Nathan instructed her, and Audrey let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. His smile widened, and Audrey huffed out a watery little laugh in response. This whole situation was absurd – that the first man to tell her that he was in love with her dropped it casually into conversation while they walked down the street. No giant declarations of undying love, no flowers, no romantic dinners. Just ‘Hey, Parker, I’m in love with you.’

But it worked. And anything else just wouldn’t have been right for them. Besides, wasn’t her whole life shaping up to be a study in absurdity? 

“Nathan,” she said.

“Parker.”

“You should know that I have… _feelings_ for you, too,” Audrey said with a grin. 

“You make it sound like it’s a communicable disease,” Nathan replied, his eyes bright and teasing.

“Nathan.”

“Parker.”

“Shut up,” Audrey laughed, and kissed him.


End file.
